Royalties might cause Pandora to close

[sleepysurf]

Unfortunately, a recent ruling by the CRB (Copyright Ruling Board) approving increased RIAA royalties for internet radio stations, may cause Pandora (and other internet stations) to entirely shut down...
http://gizmodo.com/5038049/pandora-internet-radio-cant-take-royalty-rates-will-likely-close-the-box

It was bad enough that the RIAA prohibited Pandora from "serving" it's custom music-stream outside the U.S. Now, the RIAA's continued greed threatens to shut down Pandora altogether. I was one of the early adopters who gladly PAID the $36 annual subscription for their superb service, before they recently switched to the FREE (advertising supported) format, trying to generate enough revenues to stay alive. What a shame!

 

[amey01]

It's such a colossal disgrace that these idiots are stuck so far behind the times and want to pull everyone else with them.

What's worse is that sometimes they succeed.

The world has moved on - I'm so thankful that we're finally at a stage where we don't need those idiots [record companies] - they've had it so good, ripping us off for so long now. It's just a shame they won't disappear quietly.

It's like manufacturers of horse-drawn carts sueing and litigating against car manufacturers (and drivers) for one reason or another. I wish they'd just die silently and stop holding the world back!

 

[Feltran]

I was just thinking about a day before I heard about this that I was glad I hadn't heard anything about the RIAA for a while... Guess it was too good to last.

 

[MiTT]

I don't use Pandora so maybe I don't understand the issue. Please explain it to me. I thought that what the RIAA did was monitor airplay to insure that artists get their royalties. Are you saying that the people who create the music shouldn't get paid for it?

Conventional radio stations have to log everything they play so that the artists get these royalties, why shouldn't internet radio have to do the same thing?

Isn't it sort of similar to Napster in a way? I personally don't have anything on my iPod that isn't copied from a disc I already own. I don't care how you slice it, not paying for something is analogous to stealing it.

Now, I can understand being angry about the greed of record companies, but that's a different subject isn't it?

Seroiusly, not trying to start a flame war here, convince me that I don't understand the issue.

 

[sleepysurf]

The gist of the problem is that Internet radio stations are being forced to pay far more in royalties than either Terrestrial or Satellite radio stations. Thus, they are not competing on a level playing field. Pandora, probably more than the others, wants to pay fair royalties to musicians. In fact, the entire premise of the Music Genome Project (which is what Pandora grew out of), is to pay musicians to categorize their entire universe of recordings, which is why Pandora works so well as a customized radio station. However, Pandora (and other Internet stations) cannot possibly survive under the economic conditions that Congress and the RIAA have set forth.

The Washington Post has a superb article, explaining the issue in detail here... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/15/AR2008081503367.html)

Here's a brief excerpt...

"Last year, an obscure federal panel ordered a doubling of the per-song performance royalty that Web radio stations pay to performers and record companies. Traditional radio, by contrast, pays no such fee. Satellite radio pays a fee but at a less onerous rate, at least by some measures. As for Pandora, its royalty fees this year will amount to 70 percent of its projected revenue of $25 million, Westergren said, a level that could doom it and other Web radio outfits..."
​

 

[Tosh]

Pandora has resolved the royalty issue.

And now you can link Pandora to a Roku player (wheras before I was using my laptop headphone jack to preamp). If you've never tried, Pandora plays a variety of new music that is similar in style to songs or artists you choose. The SQ is quite good, but if there was something I really liked I would buy the CD. And actually I've been buying more good CDs thanks to hearing it first on Pandora.

 

[amey01]

Pandora has resolved the royalty issue.

Too bad they haven't in Australia........and I quote from their website:

>>>>>>>

Dear Pandora Visitor,

We are deeply, deeply sorry to say that due to licensing constraints, we can no longer allow access to Pandora for listeners located outside of the U.S. We will continue to work diligently to realize the vision of a truly global Pandora, but for the time being we are required to restrict its use. We are very sad to have to do this, but there is no other alternative.

We believe that you are in Australia (your IP address appears................
blah
blah
blah.........

 

[sleepysurf]

I believe Last.FM, a similar internet radio service, is available in Europe, and offers similar functionality. The Squeezebox line of servers supports both.

 

[amey01]

Yep - Last.FM is available here, but it is a paid service. Still - it is great on the Squeezebox, if a little different to Pandora.

Spotify appears to be another great service available for our European friends (but not me!)

 

[timm]

the only question becomes - what is next for the RIAA? I am listening to pandora right now - and it is my saving grace at work. So, here is a question - which i don't really know - but I am sure some of you do... Do artists get paid everytime their songs are played on an fm radio station? Or - is it just a free format that they gladly embrace because it PROMOTES them for increased sales of tickets/albums/and other goodies? If it is -- why is something like pandora so different?

 

[Craig]

Discovering new music by purchasing unheard CDs or downloads is a waste of money and radios play what the record companies want you to hear between all the cheesy ads. Pandora is an excellent way to discover new music or artists and the listener has much more control over the music genre and style compared to a static radio station including the monopolized low-rez XM/Sirius stuff.

I'm much more likely to hear something new I like from Pandora and then follow-up with buying the CD. If the RIAA had a clue they would support Pandora instead of allowing the radio and satellite industry to dominate and control the business.

The business model for the recording industry has changed a lot and the RIAA has been trying to resist the inevitable.

"If you don't like change, you'll like being irrelevant even less" - Brian Cullis, Colonel USAF, Ret

 

[amey01]

Discovering new music by purchasing unheard CDs or downloads is a waste of money and radios play what the record companies want you to hear between all the cheesy ads. Pandora is an excellent way to discover new music or artists and the listener has much more control over the music genre and style compared to a static radio station including the monopolized low-rez XM/Sirius stuff.

I'm much more likely to hear something new I like from Pandora and then follow-up with buying the CD. If the RIAA had a clue they would support Pandora instead of allowing the radio and satellite industry to dominate and control the business.

The business model for the recording industry has changed a lot and the RIAA has been trying to resist the inevitable.

"If you don't like change, you'll like being irrelevant even less" - Brian Cullis, Colonel USAF, Ret

Very true, and the RIAA (along with their kronies) are becoming less and less relevant. Good riddance to bad rubbish I say.

FM radio / DAB absolutely SUX.

 

[TomD]

Discovering new music by purchasing unheard CDs or downloads is a waste of money and radios play what the record companies want you to hear between all the cheesy ads. Pandora is an excellent way to discover new music or artists and the listener has much more control over the music genre and style compared to a static radio station including the monopolized low-rez XM/Sirius stuff.

I only recently discovered Pandora and what you say is so true. It introduced me to music that just does not exist on commercial radio regardless of the cheesy adds. Since listening to Pandora, i have purchased a S**T load of music. Just today i picked up two Dragonforce CDs and a Gamma Ray, which i never heard of before Pandora.

I think the industry must be getting a boost from people hearing new music; the industry should be thankful of Pandora instead of killing it with greed.